The way the seeds shook out in the end for this week’s Southeastern Conference tournament impacts not only the path to advance but teams having more time to let injuries mend.

Georgia was among those that landed the double bye that goes to the top four teams.

The No. 3 seeded Bulldogs open play Friday night in Nashville instead of Thursday.

That’s an extra day to give starting guard Kenny Gaines a chance to return from a sprained left foot that kept him out of the regular season finale Saturday at Auburn.

“It’s extremely important,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said Monday. “I don’t know if it will be enough, to be honest with you. …Any extra rest that we can get at this point is critical.”

There’s another tournament next week with Georgia (20-10, 11-7 SEC) being projected into the NCAA field.

Asked if he’s confident Gaines, Georgia’s second leading scorer, will be healthy by then, Fox said: “Yeah, I would say you never really know, but I’m pretty confident that Kenny is on the track to recovery.”

The NCAA tournament selection committee can take into account team’s injuries for seeding.

The chair of last year’s committee Ron Wellman addressed a few days before the official bracket came out in 2014 what bearing injuries had.

“We will be well aware of the latest information and whether the individual is going to be available to his team during the tournament,” said Wellman, athletic director at Wake Forest. “It is a discussion point with the committee, the injury reports, how that might impact the team. …It is up to the individual committee member as to how much weight they want to put on that particular injury.”

Back in the SEC, Texas A&M wasn’t as fortunate as Georgia, which plays at about 9:30 p.m. Friday against either Ole Miss, South Carolina or Missouri.

The Aggies missed out on the double bye after a four-way tie for third. They are the No. 5 seed and play Thursday at about 3:30 p.m. against Mississippi State or Auburn.

It’s doubtful that Texas A&M will have its top scorer, guard Danuel House who is out with a severely sprained foot.

“Now that we are playing on Thursday it will be a little bit more difficult,” Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. “We were hoping to get the double bye.”

Now Kennedy says “it’s a stretch” House will be able to play at all in Nashville.

Gaines’ name came up several times on the weekly coaches teleconference on the topic of the league’s SEC best defenders.
Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings first mentioned Gaines calling him “one of the top perimeter defenders in the league. His athleticism is incredible. His desire to get through screens seems to be terrific.”

LSU’s Johnny Jones and Kennedy also mentioned Gaines.

“Kenny Gaines is probably their guy in terms of what he can do from a disruption standpoint on any perimeter player in the league,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “He’s really good.”

The SEC on Tuesday will release its coaches’ postseason honors including its all-defensive team.

Gaines was injured at the end of practice Thursday.

Without the 6-foot-3 Gaines, Georgia gave up 9 3-pointers in its 64-61 win at Auburn, but the Tigers had 29 attempts from behind the line.

Fox said he was thankful for his team to get some extra rest this week and “to get our legs back underneath us, get healthy and try to get prepared for the tournament.”

Small forward Juwan Parker logged 15 minutes against Auburn. He missed 11 games with an Achilles’ injury before returning to play two minutes against Missouri on Feb. 28.

Fox said Parker had not run up and down the court until returning for that game.

“We’ve had to do some halfcourt things,” Fox said. “To have extended minutes like he had against Auburn was really a stress on him. We’ll just kind of take it day by day.”

Fox said Parker was “extremely sore,” on Sunday but hopes he’ll be able to contribute in Nashville.

Things fell into place for Georgia about as well as it could have hoped for when it came to seeding for the SEC men’s basketball tournament this coming week in Nashville.

The Bulldogs earned a coveted double bye that goes to the top four seeds after finishing in a four-way tie for third in the conference.

No. 3 seeded Georgia (20-10, 11-7 SEC) will play its first game Friday at Bridgestone Arena in the quarterfinals at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. The opponent will be the winner of a Thursday game between No. 6 seed Ole Miss and the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 11 South Carolina and No. 14 Missouri.

Georgia is in the other side of the bracket from top-ranked and unbeaten Kentucky, meaning they wouldn’t meet until the title game.

The Bulldogs began the day knowing they would fall anywhere from the No. 3 to No. 6 seed.

The bottleneck for third began to take shape before the tip of the Bulldogs 64-61 win at Auburn Saturday afternoon when Alabama beat Texas A&M 61-60. LSU soon after upset Arkansas to also finish 11-7 in the conference.

The four-way tie came after Georgia won and later Ole Miss lost at home to Vanderbilt, 86-77, late Saturday night.

The seeding was determined by each team’s record against tied teams. Georgia went 3-1 (beating Ole Miss twice and Texas A&M once and losing to LSU.) The No. 4 seed went to LSU, which went 3-2.

Georgia was also the third seed last year and beat No. 6 Ole Miss in the quarterfinals 75-73 before losing to Kentucky 70-58 in the semifinals.

AUBURN, Ala. | Georgia opened SEC regular season play with Kenny Paul Geno breaking his left wrist and ended it Saturday at Auburn Arena with starter Kenny Gaines out of the lineup with a walking boot on his sprained left foot.

The Bulldogs and coach Mark Fox still found a way to cobble together victories throughout with players in and out of the lineup.

They did again Saturday with a big second-half from junior guard Charles Mann helping to lift them to a 64-61 win against Auburn that for all intents and purposes ended any remaining doubt that Georgia will be headed to the NCAA tournament.

“Throughout the season we had players down due to injury and other players just have to step up,” said Mann, who scored 15 points, including 9 of 9 from the foul line, all in the second half. “I’m all about the team and I just want to make it the tournament and help my team win.”

By tournament, Mann said he means “not NIT,” where Georgia had to settle for a year ago.

The Bulldogs (20-10, 11-7 SEC) were already projected to be pretty safe for the NCAA and avoiding a loss Saturday to the struggling Tigers (12-19, 4-14) about cements their first trip since 2011.

“That’s for you guys to talk about,” Fox said on if his team is an NCAA tournament team. “I believed that for a long time, but I don’t get to make that decision.”

Georgia posted back-to-back 20 win seasons for the first time since 1996-98, making Fox just the second coach to do that at Georgia, joining Tubby Smith.

Georgia won its sixth SEC road game, most in program history.

“Missed opportunity,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl “I’m very disappointed. …I am happy in some ways that this helped Georgia because I would like to see Georgia make this NCAA tournament. They were this close last year and this would have been a bad loss for them.”

Georgia did what it couldn’t against top-ranked Kentucky Tuesday by finishing strong and making free throws.

The Bulldogs, who overcame a 46-39 deficit with 13:53 to go, sank 19 of 21 from the line after going 9 of 18 in its last game.

Mann hit a pair with 1:32 to go for a 62-60 lead and Auburn’s Cinmeon Bowers had a chance to tie after forward Marcus Thornton fouled out with 5.8 seconds to go, but he missed the first and made the second.

Guard J.J. Frazier sank two more with 4.9 seconds to go and KT Harrell (24 points, 4 of 13 3s) missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“It’s joy, I don’t coach for relief,” Fox said of escaping with the victory. “You take Alka Seltzer for relief.”

Mann scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half. He entered shooting 65.6 percent from the line was perfect on the day.

“I yell at him enough so he can make a free throw,” said Frazier, who led the Bulldogs with 16 points. “I just tell him steady hands. You get steady hands, knock it down.”

Mann wanted to be “really aggressive” on offense to draw fouls off drives.

With Gaines out, Mann played not only point guard but Gaines’ shooting guard spot.

He also had 4 assists and 4 rebounds.

“The kid was terrific,” Fox said. “I tell him on Friday, `Welcome to the 2 guard spot.’ He’s not played one possession there all year. …He’s just so unselfish.”

The Bulldogs went home unsure when they would open SEC tournament play, but learned late Saturday night they earned a double bye as the No. 3 seed.

Georgia plays at approximately 9:30 p.m. Friday against Ole Miss, South Carolina or Missouri.

Fox said he didn’t know if Gaines will be able to play next week. He had a couple of rounds of treatment on Friday night, but on Saturday morning “we knew it wasn’t worth trying.”

Getting through the first half with a 31-28 lead may have been as pivotal as the finish.

Not only did Georgia not have Gaines, the team’s top scorer in SEC play and its best perimeter defenders, but it played much of the first half without two other starters–Mann and Thornton, who each picked up two early fouls.

Juwan Parker, who had played just two minutes since missing 11 straight games with an Achilles’ tendon injury, logged 11 first half minutes and finished with four points and five rebounds.

Frazier said he told Mann at halftime “we held it together long enough. We didn’t melt down with you and Marcus in foul trouble so you’ve got to give us something and he responded.”

Fox said “these kids have played their tails off.”

That won’t stop in Nashville even in a strong position to make the NCAAs, Frazier said.

Not only did Georgia not have Gaines, the team’s top scorer in SEC play and its best perimeter defenders, but it played much of the first half without two other starters — Mann and Thornton, who each picked up two early fouls.

“We’re not just going to go in there and say we’re playing on house money,” Frazier said. “We’re going to play as hard as we can to get a win and try to get a championship.”

Based off of how it hung with top-ranked Kentucky down to the final minutes, Georgia has the look of a team that has the capability to do some damage in the NCAA tournament.

Now, it’s a matter of making sure the Bulldogs (19-10, 10-7 SEC) are in the field of 68.

Georgia closes out its regular season Saturday at Auburn in good position to do just that. A second loss this season to the lowly Tigers (12-18, 4-13) in the 4 p.m. game would probably create anxiety again heading into the SEC tournament where dropping another game to a lower-tier team could put the Bulldogs on edge come selection Sunday.

One noted bracketologist, however, said Friday he thinks the Bulldogs can survive that scenario.

“I think they’re going to make it regardless,” said Joe Lunardi, who projects the field for ESPN and has the Bulldogs as a No. 8 seed. “We’re getting to the point now where there aren’t enough games left for anybody for there to be enough movement to fall from an 8-9 game to off the board. So really the only significant worry in terms of making it, we’re talking selection, not seeding, is that if I and a lot of other people apparently have valued Georgia incorrectly. If they’re a 10 or 11 in the committee’s eyes at the moment, then there’s a problem. I don’t think they are.”

Still, coach Mark Fox said Friday, “I don’t think there’s any doubt we’d take another win. At this point, you want to continue to add Ws. You want to try to position yourself the best that you can similar to the league tournament, you want the best seed that you can get so I think most certainly that would help.”

Georgia is also projected as a No. 8 seed for the NCAAs by Patrick Stevens of D1scourse.com and a No. 9 by CBSSports.com’s Jerry Palm.

“Georgia’s an NCAA tournament team,” Jay Bilas, who called the 72-64 loss to Kentucky Tuesday on ESPN, said Friday. “I think that’s become clear to everybody now. They’re going to be in the field absent something bizarre happening.”

There could be two chances for such a loss depending on the opponent in the SEC tournament.

The Bulldogs, who could be without guard Kenny Gaines Saturday due to a foot injury, still can finish anywhere from the No. 3 to 6 seed for next week’s event in Nashville.

Kentucky and Arkansas have nailed down the first two seeds, but there is jockeying behind them for No. 3 and 4, which also gets a double bye and starts play on Friday.

The Bulldogs need to beat Auburn to finish in the top four and get some help. If Georgia is fifth or sixth, it will start play on Thursday.

Ole Miss (which Saturday hosts Vanderbilt) and Texas A&M (which hosts Alabama) are 11-6 and LSU (which plays at No. 18 Arkansas) and Georgia are 10-6. The Bulldogs have the head-to-head tiebreaker with Ole Miss and Texas A&M, but LSU holds it over Georgia.

“Anytime you get in a tournament situation, you want the best seed you can get,” Fox said.

Georgia had a few days to get past the emotionally draining game against Kentucky. Fox said he asked football coach Mark Richt for input from New England coach Bill Belichick, in town Tuesday and Wednesday, what Fox should tell his team going forward after a game like that “just because I just wanted to hear what a championship coach would say.”

In another conversation with Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens on Thursday, the former Butler coach told Fox that playing against a team as long and deep as Kentucky for 40 minutes, the “’margin for error is so slim because it wears on you.’ And quite frankly, their depth, it wore on us. I don’t fault our team at all. We gave it what we had and our crowd was terrific. We just couldn’t close it.”

Georgia had similar trouble getting defensive stops late against Auburn in a 69-68 Bulldogs home loss on Feb. 14.

“It’s all about competing and being tough enough to close the deal,” forward Marcus Thornton said.

The offense isn’t being reinvented this spring at Georgia but it won’t be exactly the same old, same old either.

That means that even a fourth-year starter on the offensive line and the dean of SEC coaches entering his 15th season are adjusting to the changes on that side of the ball, the biggest being Brian Schottenheimer coming from the NFL to replace longtime assistant Mike Bobo as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

“There’s a learning curve for everybody to a certain degree,” Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said Wednesday. “It’s healthy and I’m enjoying it, learning some new things. There’s a lot of things we’ve been doing that the proof’s kind of in the pudding on the film and coach Schotty really likes it. We’re just kind of melding everybody’s ideas together and making it make sense for everybody.”

The defense had the overhaul a year ago with the entire defensive staff changing under Jeremy Pruitt, who enters his second spring as coordinator. This time when spring practices begin on March 17, it’s the offense where there’s changes all around and that includes not only on staff but at quarterback, where Brice Ramsey, Faton Bauta and Jacob Park will compete for the starting job with Hutson Mason gone.

“I think it’s definitely going to be a different spring than I’ve ever experienced here,” said senior John Theus, the starter at left tackle. “We’ve got coach Schottenheimer and a new kind of offense, the quarterback competition, along with the

other competitions. …It’s going to be an adjustment.”

The changes aren’t quite as drastic as last spring on defense, but only one assistant offensive coach is in the same position as a year ago: tight ends coach John Lilly.

Bobo became head coach at Colorado State after eight seasons running the offense. Bryan McClendon is going from coaching one of the most talented positions on the team (running backs) to perhaps the one with the most uncertainty (wide receivers). He made the move to make room for former Bulldogs running back Thomas Brown to coach that position.

Rob Sale from McNeese State replaces offensive line coach Will Friend, who left to be offensive coordinator at Colorado State.

“I think they’re both country boys with bald heads so it’s pretty much all the same,” Theus said. “Nah, Coach Sale is a great guy. He’s been approachable. …I feel confident in him. Any time there’s a coaching change people worry, but I think coach Richt really did a great job.”

Georgia’s offense has set program scoring and yardage records in recent seasons and it has a strong foundation in tailback Nick Chubb and four starters returning on the offensive line.

Richt said philosophically he’s closely in tune with Schottenheimer, who coordinated the offenses at St. Louis and the New York Jets.

“It’s a little bit of a melting pot of people’s ideas,” Richt said. “The ideas that he’s brought in and the things that we’ve done in the past. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s 100 percent exactly the same verbiage that we had a year ago, but as far as the things that we’re doing married up very well.”

There are some different names for calls, Theus said. Richt said blocking combinations may be different.

“We’ve been able to see some stuff and get some notes down,” Theus said. “Any time a new coach comes in stuff’s going to change, calls are going to change. …Being a senior, being able to learn stuff is a lot different than a freshman. I’ll be able to relate it to some older stuff. Overall, I’m pretty sure we’re going to run some same concepts, keep it as similar as possible so it’s easy as possible for us to pick up. I think it’s going to good for us and the spring will be a good time for us to learn a lot.”

Notes: There will be two Ledbetters in Tracy Rocker’s defensive line room. Defensive tackle Jonathan Ledbetter, an early enrollee, is joined by his older brother Joseph, who moves from tight end and will work at either end or tackle. Detric Bing-Dukes is listed as a fullback, but Richt said the redshirt freshman is now back at inside linebacker. Walk-on offensive lineman Glenn Welch has moved to fullback.

…….Outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins said he expected Leonard Floyd and Davin Bellamy to be out this spring after surgeries. Richt did not disclose players that would be sidelined. …Patriots coach Bill Belichick worked out NFL draft hopefuls David Andrews, Chris Conley, Ramik Wilson and Toby Johnson Wednesday, the morning after attending the Georgia-Kentucky basketball game. “I think he was trying to come in a little bit low profile and then we heard about the game, he was excited about an opportunity to go see it,” Richt said.

There wasn’t much consolation for Georgia late Tuesday night for putting quite a scare into No. 1 Kentucky, the team that nobody has toppled this season.

The Bulldogs for 35 minutes looked like they were on the verge of doing the near unthinkable, ending the Wildcats’ perfect season.

Georgia led by as much as nine in the second half and a sold-out, blacked-out home crowd had Stegeman Coliseum rocking.

A forgettable finish sapped that energy and the Wildcats scored 14 straight points to pull away for a 72-64 victory.

“We gave all we had,” Georgia junior guard Kenny Gaines said. “Their backs were kind of against the wall and they just turned it up another notch. Give them credit. They’re a well, battle-tested team and they know how to finish games out.”

Georgia will remember missing the front end of a one-and-one three times down the stretch and going 9 of 18 from the line, but it also won’t forget their senior stalwarts Nemanja Djurisic (18 points, six rebounds) and Marcus Thornton (14 points, seven rebounds) battling in their final home game with Kentucky’s sizable post players.

It may wonder what if on a night it made just 3 of 17 3-pointers, but it still gave a team that had won its last five games by an average of 24.4 points and hadn’t trailed since the first half of a game at Tennessee on Feb. 17 all it could handle.

“We played hard,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “We played very well. We didn’t play perfect. They’re so dang good that you almost have to play perfect. That’s not realistic. Certainly we would have liked to have made a few more free throws–didn’t get there a lot. Would have liked to have shot the 3 better…We played our tails off and it wasn’t quite good enough.”

Kentucky coach John Calipari called unranked Georgia “a top 20 team” afterwards. He had already labeled them an NCAA tournament team heading into the game.

The Bulldogs (19-10, 10-7 SEC) were already projected to be in the field and a loss like this in a nationally televised game should only help their perception nationally and perhaps with the NCAA tournament selection committee.

“I’m sure they’ll look back on the game and see how it ended and hopefully they’ll make the right decision,” said Gaines, who had 11 points.

Georgia closes out the regular season Saturday at Auburn.

Two hours before tipoff Tuesday, the Stegeman doors were opened and students who lined up outside made a mad dash to get in their seats.

“Wish we could have won the game,” Thornton said. “That was as good as an atmosphere as I’ve ever seen here, you know for a night game, the blackout and all that stuff. It was incredible.”

Fox tried his best to shield the team from what an amped up atmosphere around campus before the game. He took the unusual step of having the players go to the hotel at the Georgia Center to get away.

“Campus was a little rowdy,” Gaines said. “That was a good call by coach Fox to help us stay relaxed.”

Beating Kentucky (30-0, 17-0) would have been close to winning a Super Bowl as you can get for a game in the first week of March considering the Wildcats are on the quest for perfection. The game brought out New England Super Bowl winning coach Bill Belichick (who was at Auburn earlier in the day for its football Pro Day), former NBA star Charles Barkley and Wildcats superfan, actress Ashley Judd.

“Definitely a missed opportunity,” Gaines said. “It would have been great to end their streak, but they’re on their streak for a reason.”

Bulldog players said they felt confident heading into the game and didn’t leave viewing their team differently than beforehand.

“We know we can play,” Thornton said. “I think we understand that at this point.”

Georgia fell to 0-16 against top-ranked teams all-time, but led 56-47 with 9:12 to go and were still up 62-56 with 5:36 left.

The Bulldogs missed five of their final six shots and Kentucky, which had made just 14 of its first 48 shots, hit 9 of its next 11.

“We just faltered there at the end and couldn’t get stops,” Gaines said.

Forward Karl Anthony Towns had 17 of his game-high 19 points in the second half and guard Aaron Harrison had 14 of his 16 in the final 20 minutes.

“That’s the No. 1 team in America,” said Djurisic, a native of Montenegro who said he had a mixture of emotions playing before his parents on senior night. “We should be proud of the effort we put out there.”

Georgia shot 47.3 percent against a team that leads the nation in field goal percentage defense at 34.4.

Djurisic called the game a “special moment” even with the loss.”

“I’m going to look at the tape and I’m going to go in there tomorrow and I’m going to say we should have won the game,” Fox said. “I don’t believe in moral victories but hopefully they believe that when we saddle up and really get after it we’ve got a good team.”

Georgia men’s basketball coach Mark Fox has finally signed the extension to his contract that the school announced last spring he would be getting, athletic director Greg McGarity confirmed Tuesday.

Fox signed the deal a couple of weeks ago, McGarity said. It extended his contract two seasons to take it through March 31, 2018. His salary remains at $1.7 million per year.

“We’ll talk about all this stuff later, we’ve got a game tonight,” McGarity said speaking in the afternoon before a 9 p.m. tip against No. 1 Kentucky.

The Athens Banner-Herald requested via open records last week for any changes to the total compensation and/or contract to Fox in recent weeks and got a reply on Friday saying: “Athletics has no responsive documentation.”

McGarity said that’s because athletics is waiting for the contract from the president’s office.

“It’s just a procedural matter,” McGarity said.

The changes to the contract include reducing the buyout on both ends, according to a draft agreement dated Oct. 31, 2014 and released via open records on Feb. 3.

Fox said on Jan. 23 that he didn’t think there were “big issues,” in finalizing the deal, but indicated that he didn’t expect it to be completed until after the season. Fox said part of the reason the contract wasn’t signed sooner was changes in the athletic department where executive associate athletic director Frank Crumley, who ran the business office, resigned in mid-September.

In six seasons at Georgia, Fox is 104-86 and 50-50 in the SEC entering Tuesday night’s game. Georgia has clinched back to back seasons with winning records in SEC play for the first time since 2001-03.

The Bulldogs are one win away from their second straight 20 win season and are in position to land a second NCAA tournament trip in Fox’s time at Georgia.

The biggest storyline in college basketball makes its way to Stegeman Colisem on Tuesday night.

Top-ranked Kentucky is in town and two wins away from completing an unbeaten regular season.

If the Wildcats remain unscathed and win the national championship April 6, they would become the first men’s team to complete a perfect season since Indiana in 1975-76.

Georgia took its shot that season and it wasn’t close. The Bulldogs were crushed 93-56 in Bloomington on December 19, 1975.

“We weren’t really prepared for the big name, the undefeated (team) and it’s Indiana and Bobby Knight,” said Jacky Dorsey, an All-SEC forward then for Georgia. “I think a lot of us got caught up in the hype of who it was.”

That Bulldogs team Dorsey remembers was inexperienced — relying heavily on sophomores and freshmen — and finished 12-15.

This time, Georgia (19-9,10-6 SEC) and coach Mark Fox look headed for the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs have won five of their last seven games, including three in a row on the road.

“They’re playing as well as they’ve played all year right now,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “Foxy’s got them going.”

The Bulldogs already played at Kentucky (29-0, 16-0 SEC) on Feb. 3 and were within five with less than two minutes to go before losing 69-58. Fox said the Wildcats didn’t play “very well,” that game.

“Georgia will have to be the best that Georgia can possibly be,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said of a possible upset in the rematch. “But, of course, anything is possible.”

Echoing his coach, Georgia senior forward Nemanja Djurisic said “we have to be ourselves, play hard, play determined and have our fans behind us.”

There will be a sold-out crowd on hand when the game tips off at 9 p.m.

Every Kentucky game is as much an event as it is a game. Calipari said tickets have been harder to come by for home games than any of his seasons in Lexington.

Former Georgia football players Hutson Mason and Marlon Brown have tweeted about wanting to get tickets for the game.

ESPN is not only airing tonight’s game, but Calipari’s postgame news conferences are now being shown live on SportsCenter.

“It’s very exciting because no one wants to lose,” Wildcats guard Tyler Ulis said, “and of course we’re to this point now where we just want to keep it going.”

Kentucky has kept it going in large part because it boasts “tremendous talent and length,” Fox said.

The Wildcats leads the nation in field-goal defense (34.4) and are second in blocked shots (7.0 per game) and scoring defense (53.2 points per game).

The Bulldogs shot at a 41-percent clip in the first meeting and that was also without top scorer and leading rebounder Marcus Thornton, who missed the game after suffering a concussion.

“Now that we’ve got him back you obviously see our team is better and in rhythym and he demands double teams,” guard J.J. Frazier said.

Calipari lavished praise on Fox on Monday saying he’s “one of the toughest ones” to go up against in his 22 seasons as a college head coach.

“He may come out and play zone, he may come out and play man,” he said. “They may sag. …He’s one of those coaches that I know when we walk in, we better be ready. Our team better be ready, our staff better be ready. His team will be ready.”

Kentucky has beaten the six ranked teams its played this season by an average of 17.2 points.

“If the Georgia team doesn’t get caught up in the hype of who this Goliath is, they stand a better chance to win,” said Dorsey, who now lives in Houston where he works at the V.A. hospital and will be honored as an SEC legend at the league tournament next week in Nashville.

Georgia is 0-15 all-time against No. 1 teams. It will try to change that against a program that has clinched its 46th regular-season SEC title.

Fox said Kentucky has “without question the best basketball team in America.” It’s a team that still was pushed to overtime in its first two league games.

“It’s not impossible,” Fox said. “You know, it’s not impossible. You’ve just got to figure out a way to make it possible.”

Playing top-ranked and unbeaten Kentucky in March is enough to make Stegeman Coliseum an electric atmosphere Tuesday night by itself.

There are plenty of other subplots to the game. Here are five:

SENIOR NIGHT

It’s the final home game for Georgia’s three seniors, including frontcourt starters Marcus Thornton and Nemanja Djurisic.

Thornton is from down the road in Atlanta. Djurisic is from overseas in Montenegro.

Thornton came in a year ahead of Djurisic, who signed in the late period in 2011.

“When I was being recruited, all the other schools said, ‘Marcus Thornton is over there. Don’t go,’” Djurisic said. “It’s crazy how after four years we couldn’t have done it without each other. We’ve really played off of each other and we work well together.”

Thornton, a fifth-year senior who has had three knee surgeries, will tie the Georgia games record played Tuesday. Djurisic is a 1,000-point scorer.

“I’m proud of both of them,” coach Mark Fox said. “It will be a tough night.”

Fox will also start senior and former walk-on Taylor Echols, who saw increased playing time in SEC play when the Bulldogs were hit hard by injuries.

BLACKOUT

Soon after Georgia’s win over Missouri Saturday, UGA on Twitter called for a blackout.

Fan Jesse Kenney, known for wearing his red and black sweater at home games, posted on the social media platform that he is sticking with it. “Cannot break the tradition!! Maybe I will stand out!! LOL!!!”

Fox said his team actually isn’t wearing black uniforms. He said he didn’t have input into the blackout call.

As for what color the Bulldogs will don, that’s up to his players, he said.

“I don’t know what color they’ve decided to wear, I’ll let them pick,” he said. “But we will not wear black.”

JUST IN CASE

Georgia’s highest-ranked wins in program history are against No. 2 Florida in 2002 and Pittsburgh in 2003.

Just in case there is an upset this time, there will be an additional courtside security on duty, according to UGA.

Kansas State was reprimanded by the Big 12 after a win against Kansas when its fans stormed the court.

The SEC levies fines to schools for fans entering courts or field.

A first offense is $5,000, a second is $25,000 and a third and beyond is $50,000.

Georgia has not been fined since the league’s penalty structure was put in place.

KENTUCKY’S GOT TREY LYLES

Sure, having Marcus Thornton this time around is big for Georgia, but Kentucky also has a player it did not when the Bulldogs lost to Kentucky in Lexington.

Forward Trey Lyles, who was out with an illness, has been called an “X-factor” by coach John Calipari.

Fox said Kentucky is a different team when the 6-foot-10 Lyles is in the game. He’s the latest SEC freshman of the week after scoring 18 points in each of the last two games, his highest outputs of the season.

“When he was out we didn’t have that one more rebounder that we needed,” Calipari said.

NBA TALENT ON DISPLAY

Kentucky has four players projected as top 25 picks in this year’s NBA draft by Draftexpress.com: Karl Anthony-Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Devin Booker and Lyles.

“A bunch of these kids are going to be in the NBA next year,” Calipari said. “Not just one or two.”

About a dozen NBA scouts are expected, but that doesn’t approach the 27 that attended Georgia’s game against Colorado in 2010 when the Buffaloes had eventual first round pick Alec Burks and Georgia had second round picks Travis Leslie and Trey Thompkins.

Georgia can’t call itself an NCAA tournament team just yet, but it sure looked like one in dismantling the Southeastern Conference’s last-place team Saturday.

The Bulldogs’ 68-44 rout of Missouri at Stegeman Coliseum may not put fear into Kentucky heading into Tuesday’s visit from the top-ranked Wildcats, but the Georgia made sure it didn’t get tripped up by a bottom-rung league team that could have done damage to its postseason profile.

A third victory in a row clinched a winning league record for Georgia (19-9, 10-6 SEC) for the second straight season.

The last time the Bulldogs had consecutive winning seasons in the SEC was 2001-03, which comes with an asterisk because wins were vacated in those last two years by NCAA sanctions.

Only two other times has Georgia managed SEC records over .500 in a row, in 1995-97 in Hugh Durham’s last season, Tubby Smith’s two seasons and in 1939-40.

“For me, the goal was to make this program competitive and healthy,” coach Mark Fox said. “Three years ago, we were .500 in this league and last year we had a winning record in the league and this year we have a winning record in the league and every kid graduates. We’ve only got two seniors and we’ve got a good team coming back. In the grand scheme of things I’m proud of our players for putting us in that position.”

Given that Georgia was in the NIT this year, reaching the NCAA tournament with a veteran team was viewed as the next step needed this season.

Georgia is almost there after dispatching a team No. 200 in the RPI. There was no upset like in the last two home games against Auburn and South Carolina.

“I think Coach Fox has done really a quality job,” said Durham, recognized at halftime along with his 1990 SEC regular season champion team on the 25th anniversary. ““I’m happy that it’s come out like it has. He’s got a lot of good players and he’s got them playing together and they believe in each other. From a coaching standpoint, that’s always something.”

Forward Nemanja Djurisic’s 14 points led three Bulldogs in double figures in the largest margin of victory in a league game in Fox’s six seasons.

Like it has for much of the season, this was another team effort.

Missouri (8-21, 2-14) was outrebounded 47-30 and held to 28.6 shooting. The only game the Tigers were worse this season was 27.1 percent against Kentucky on Jan. 29.

“We played a pretty complete game,” Fox said.

Durham addressed the Bulldogs on Friday and told them “it always helps to get out in front early. There are people telling them it’s not a big game and games like this aren’t big until you lose and then they’re really big.”

Georgia ran out to a 20-10 lead by the second media timeout with Djurisic scoring nine of those.

“It was definitely an emphasis for us to just go out play hard and compete as soon as the ball was tipped up,” forward Marcus Thornton said.

Eight different players scored as the Bulldogs led 41-23 after their most points in a first half in SEC play this season. Small forward Kenny Paul Geno had five of his career-high seven points in the first half.

Georgia kept coming in the second half. J.J. Frazier (10 points, five assists three steals) fed Cameron Forte (10 points on 5 of 5 shooting, 6 rebounds) on a bounce pass for a slam to make it 55-27 with 12:43 to go.

Georgia went the next 6:12 without a point, prompting Fox to bring in a fresh five players.

“We were out there, we weren’t playing,” he said. “Kind of burning some clock and ho-humming it. You can’t play that way.”

Certainly not against Kentucky.

“Kentucky’s got a great team,” Fox said. “One of the great teams of all-time. They’ve got a frontline bigger than I think every NBA team than maybe one. How do we get ready for Kentucky? I’ll call Bud (coach Mike Budenholzer) over there and see if we can scrimmage the Hawks tomorrow.”

Georgia had a respectable showing on the road in a 69-58 loss to the Wildcats on Feb. 3 without an injured Thornton.

“It’s not like ‘Ooo, we hung with Kentucky,” Frazier said. “I feel like we can play with anybody in the country. Our best player wasn’t playing. Of course, you get a little bit more confident because as I call him, ‘The Boss’ wasn’t down in the paint.”

There’s quite a high-profile game ahead Tuesday for the Georgia men’s basketball team against top-ranked and unbeaten Kentucky and an important road win at Ole Miss just behind.

That could make Saturday’s game against Missouri, the SEC’s last place-team, a potential danger zone, but the Bulldogs don’t sound overly concerned about slipping up again like they did before back-to-back road wins.

“We’ve kind of found the formula to winning, how we’re supposed to win,” said guard Kenny Gaines, coming off a 22 point outing against the Rebels. “We feel pretty confident in the way we play now and we’re just ready to go get after it.”

The noon tip in Stegeman Coliseum on ESPNU comes less than 48 hours after the team returned to Athens after a delayed departure home from Wednesday night’s victory due to snow in Oxford.

Georgia (18-9, 9-6 SEC) also won a week ago at Alabama, giving it the most road wins it’s had in SEC play (five) since 1991.

The Bulldogs again look in good shape for the NCAA tournament, something that seemed fragile after home losses to Auburn and South Carolina in its most recent games in Stegeman. Those also followed a quality road win at Texas A&M.

“We just didn’t play well those couple of games,” coach Mark Fox said. “We have to learn from all of the experiences of the season and hopefully we’ve learned from that and we’ll play better.”

Added senior post player Marcus Thornton: “Generally speaking, we know we haven’t really handled success well in small strings, we’re definitely going to be focused on doing what we can do.”

The Bulldogs 76-72 win in Oxford assured Georgia of at least a .500 record in SEC play for the third straight season, the first time that’s happened for the Bulldogs since 2001-03.

Georgia’s formula to winning that Gaines mentioned against Ole Miss included holding the Rebels to 35 percent shooting and tying a season-high with 11 3-pointers.

Thornton played his best game in the six he’s had since missing two with a concussion.

He had 18 points and 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, but his first since Jan. 10 at LSU.

“Maybe really for the first time post-concussion, he returned to his aggressive and explosive self there in the second half and was terrific,” Fox said.

Missouri (8-20, 2-13) has struggled mightily under first year coach Kim Anderson, who won an NCAA Division II title last year at Central Missouri. The Tigers had lost 13 straight games before a 64-52 victory at home against Florida Tuesday.

“I personally don’t feel their record reflects their team and their talent level,” Gaines said.

Only 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Johnathan Williams (12.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg) III is averaging in double figure scoring for Missouri since guard Wes Clark was lost for the season with a dislocated elbow. Namon Wright, a freshman guard, scored 28, including 6 of 8 3-pointers against the Gators.

The Tigers’ 13 player roster includes 12 first or second year players in the program.

“New coach, new system had some guys miss some games,” Fox said. “Typical of most new coaches and teams adjusting to a new system, they play their best at the end of the year. So we need to be ready for that.”

Missouri is 0-8 in road games this season, but given how the last two home games turned out for Georgia, nobody is likely to take anything for granted.

Bulldog Notes

Georgia is a 14-point favorite. …. Senior forward Nemanja Djurisic’s parents were to arrive Friday night from Montenegro in time to see him play for Georgia for the first time (except for exhibitions in Italy in 2012) for his final two home games.

There were 11 college football coaches that made at least $4 million annually in 2014.

The SEC alone is approaching that number in 2015 after recent raises throughout the conference, including Georgia’s Mark Richt.

The latest was Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, who got a boost to $4 million this year, the school announced on Thursday. The deal will rise in the coming years. He will make an average of $4.275 million through 2018.

That brings the number of coaches in the SEC that will get $4 million this year at nine of 14. That includes every coach in the SEC West. There were four SEC coaches making $4 million last year, according to USA Today’s salary survey.

Richt is now tied for sixth in pay at $4 million a year, along with three other coaches. Richt got an $800,000 raise last month. Elsewhere on the Georgia staff, the school this week released new running backs coach Thomas Brown’s salary. He will make $275,000 a year.

The new SEC Network can help pay the bills for increasing salaries at league schools. South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner estimates that his school will receive $5 million this year in revenue from the TV network, according to The (Columbia) State.

Here’s how the SEC coaches rank in total compensation (based on reports and info released by schools) and their body of work on the field:

The two starts Hutson Mason had to close the 2013 season just about took away any suspense — if there was even a little — that he would be the guy to succeed Aaron Murray.

This time around Georgia’s starting quarterback job again will have a changeover.

Brice Ramsey has the most game experience and the big arm.

Faton Bauta brings athleticism to the position.

Jacob Park is more of a wild card after redshirting.

And coach Mark Richt is saying publicly that it will be a legitimate competition for the gig.

Georgia starts spring practices on March 17.

“We’ve got three guys right now on scholarship that are going to be battling away for that job,” Richt said Wednesday on the “Paul Finebaum Show” on the SEC Network. “I don’t really see a frontrunner right now. I see three guys that have a lot of talent, that have a lot of competitive spirit about them. I think it’s going to be a great competition.”

Some things to consider about that competition:

Compressed practice time

Georgia is scheduled to complete its 15 spring practices in just over four weeks. There are 12 spring practices before the April 11 G-Day game and two more practices the week after.

“We’re going to give them all a really good opportunity to have reps with the first and second units and try to make it as fair as we can,” Richt said. “So we can make a really good judgment on where we need to go with that position.”

Impress the new coach

For the first time since 2000, somebody other than Mike Bobo will be coaching the quarterbacks. That’s Brian Schottenheimer, who was hired Jan. 7 as offensive coordinator after holding the same job with the St. Louis Rams.

That means a different perspective on the quarterbacks. And there’s not a fifth-year senior in the bunch like Mason last year.

Ramsey, a redshirt sophomore, served as Mason’s backup last year. Bauta, a redshirt junior, has played in six games in his career in mop-up duty but his work ethic has drawn raves. Park redshirted in his first season on campus after enrolling early and performing as the scout team quarterback. Walk-on Sam Vaughn also will compete this spring.

“It seems like wherever I’ve gone there’s always been young quarterbacks,” Schottenheimer said. “With that comes a challenge, but at the same time it’s fun. That’s a passion of mine. I love working with quarterbacks, I love developing quarterbacks. ”

Clubhouse Leader?

Coaches might not say it, but Ramsey is clearly the player to beat. There’s a reason why Richt and Bobo gave Ramsey a first-half series against Vanderbilt last season. Ramsey played in eight games in all, including the second half of the Belk Bowl after Mason was injured. For the season, he completed 61.5 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

Extended competition

The quarterback battle could roll into August or maybe even September. Georgia doesn’t open this season with Clemson and South Carolina. It opens on Sept. 5 against Louisiana-Monroe followed by Vanderbilt. If it’s a close call on who should be the starter, perhaps it will be decided in an actual game.

A couple of road victories at Ole Miss and Alabama have given the Georgia men’s basketball team some extra cushion as it tries to secure an NCAA tournament berth.

It also has the Bulldogs in position again to make a run for a double bye in the conference tournament March 11-15 in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

The top four seeds in the SEC start tournament play on that Friday and avoid a Thursday game that may not do much for a postseason profile except hurt if there’s a stumble.

With three games to go, the Bulldogs (18-9, 9-6 SEC) are tied for fifth in the conference, just a game behind Texas A&M and Ole Miss, who are tied for third place in the league at 10-5.

Georgia would have the head-to-head tiebreaker with either Texas A&M (which Georgia beat 62-53 in College Station in the team’s only meeting) or Ole Miss (which the Bulldogs swept 69-64 at home and 76-72 in Oxford).

For ties of three or more teams, the best winning percentage of games played among the tied teams determines seeding.

LSU, which is 9-6 in the SEC, also could factor in. The Tigers beat Georgia in its only meeting but were swept by Texas A&M and beat Ole Miss on Jan. 14 and those teams play again Saturday in Baton Rouge.

Kentucky at 15-0 in the league and Arkansas at 12-3 hold down the first two spots. The Wildcats can win their 37th outright SEC title Saturday at home against Arkansas.

Georgia’s final games before the SEC tournament are Saturday at noon at home against Missouri, Tuesday night at home against Kentucky and March 7 at Auburn.

The Bulldogs’ RPI rose to No. 30 on Thursday. That’s third best of SEC teams behind No. 1 Kentucky and No. 19 Arkansas.

And that’s even with those back-to-back home losses to Auburn and South Carolina, sub-100 teams.

“We gave up a couple of home games to teams that maybe people didn’t think we should have lost to and maybe we didn’t think we should have lost to them,” Bulldogs coach Mark Fox said in his postgame radio interview Wednesday night. “But we went on the road and beat two really good basketball teams this week. This one today, Ole Miss, I think is a lock for the NCAA tournament.”

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi now has the Bulldogs and Ole Miss both as projected No. 8 seeds. A victory over SEC last-place Missouri may come close to wrapping up an NCAA bid for the Bulldogs. It would clinch a winning record in league play for Georgia.

Georgia now has three top 50 RPI wins: home and away against Ole Miss and at Texas A&M. The Bulldogs are also 7-4 on the road, including victories over top 100 RPI teams Kansas State and Alabama.

Here’s the schedule remaining for others in the SEC jockeying for position with Georgia:

A couple of road victories at Ole Miss and Alabama have given the Georgia men’s basketball team some extra cushion as it tries to secure an NCAA tournament berth.

It also has the Bulldogs in position again to make a run for a double bye in the conference tournament March 11-15 in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

The top four seeds in the SEC start tournament play on that Friday and avoid a Thursday game that may not do much for a postseason profile except hurt if there’s a stumble.

With three games to go, the Bulldogs (18-9, 9-6 SEC) are tied for fifth in the conference, just a game behind Texas A&M and Ole Miss, who are tied for third place in the league at 10-5.

Georgia would have the head-to-head tiebreaker with either Texas A&M (which Georgia beat 62-53 in College Station in the team’s only meeting) or Ole Miss (which the Bulldogs swept 69-64 at home and 76-72 in Oxford).

For ties of three or more teams, the best winning percentage of games played among the tied teams determines seeding.

LSU, which is 9-6 in the SEC, also could factor in. The Tigers beat Georgia in its only meeting but were swept by Texas A&M and beat Ole Miss on Jan. 14 and those teams play gain Saturday in Baton Rouge.

Kentucky at 15-0 in the league and Arkansas at 12-3 hold down the first two spots. The Wildcats can win their 37th outright SEC title Saturday at home against Arkansas.

Georgia’s final games before the SEC tournament are Saturday at noon at home against Missouri, Tuesday night at home against Kentucky and March 7 at Auburn.

The Bulldogs’ RPI rose to No. 30 on Thursday. That’s third best of SEC teams behind No. 1 Kentucky and No. 19 Arkansas.

And that’s even with those back-to-back home losses to Auburn and South Carolina, sub-100 teams.

“We gave up a couple of home games to teams that maybe people didn’t think we should have lost to and maybe we didn’t think we should have lost to them,” Bulldogs coach Mark Fox said in his postgame radio interview Wednesday night. “But we went on the road and beat two really good basketball teams this week. This one today, Ole Miss, I think is a lock for the NCAA tournament.”

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi now has the Bulldogs and Ole Miss both as projected No. 8 seeds. A victory over SEC last-place Missouri may come close to wrapping up an NCAA bid for the Bulldogs. It would clinch a winning record in league play for Georgia.

Georgia now has three top 50 RPI wins: home and away against Ole Miss and at Texas A&M. The Bulldogs are also 7-4 on the road, including victories over top 100 RPI teams Kansas State and Alabama.

Here’s the schedule remaining for others in the SEC jockeying for position with Georgia:

Georgia’s football hype videos are well-received, but they weren’t up for any Oscars the other night.

In the latest edition of Bulldog Bytes, Marc Weiszer and Fletcher Page of the Athens Banner-Herald talk movies they’ve seen in the last year (hint: not many) and what they saw coming out of the NFL combine (former Bulldog Chris Conley stood out).

There’s also talk on the podcast about the 2016 football season opener in Atlanta against North Carolina. How much national buzz will the game get on a loaded weekend?

We also touch on Georgia getting back on track in men’s hoops before Wednesday’s game at Ole Miss, the baseball series win against Florida State and the women’s hoops teams struggles.

Thomas Brown never envisioned himself going into the coaching profession when he arrived at Georgia from Tucker High 11 years ago as a running back.

“Heck, no,” Brown said Monday, a week after being hired by Mark Richt to return to coach the position Brown played for the Bulldogs.

The long hours in the office weren’t too appealing to him, but he warmed to the idea after spending the 2011 season as a strength staff assistant at his alma mater. He bypassed a chance to be a Georgia graduate assistant to become running backs coach at Chattanooga, an FCS program, before holding the same job the following two seasons at Marshall and then Wisconsin.

Brown was “kind of adamant” about wanting to remain at Wisconsin after he stayed on after Gary Andersen left for Oregon State and was replaced by Paul Chryst.

He even turned down a few other job offers, but returning to Georgia was different.

“I’ve moved a bunch over the last few years,” Brown said.“Once I left this place, I wanted to put myself in a position that if the job did become available, I kind of built my resume and showed what I could do at other places outside of here that it would make it easier to bring me back.”

Brown and his wife Jessica are both from the state. They have two boys — 6 year-old Orlando and 5-year old Tyson.

It wasn’t a hard sell for Richt to bring Brown back to Athens.

“I’ve had different jobs…but I’ve always kept that ‘G’ up under whatever logo I had on,” Brown said.

All of those jobs (including a quick stop at Georgia State) made Brown at age 28 more outgoing than he was when he left Georgia at 25.

“It kind of forced me outside of my comfort zone,” he said. “I grew up like a huge introvert. I could go sit in the corner somewhere and not talk to people for days and be OK. Obviously, being a football coach, I can’t do that. I have to be more vocal and speak up. Having those opportunities definitely forced me to grow and mature and help me to adapt to different situations.”

Brown coached Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon, the Heisman Trophy runner up who posted the second most rushing yards in FBS history with 2,587 in 2014. Now he gets to coach Nick Chubb, the rising Georgia sophomore tailback considered a candidate for the award.

“It was great to be around a guy like Melvin who was so talented, but at the same time, showed a sign that there are some humble superstars out there,” Brown said. “He’s a guy when I came in could have just told me, `Shut up and just watch me work.’ He’s a guy that was very humble and wanted to learn, wanted to grow. I probably learned as much from him as he probably did from me. I think it definitely prepared me for coaching a high-profile guy, learning how to manage him day in and day out, practice reps why and making sure he stays as healthy as possible throughout the year.”

Bryan McClendon, who has stayed in touch with his former teammate, moved to wide receivers coach to make room for Brown after Tony Ball left for LSU.

New offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer posted on his Twitter account last week that he was “fired up” to have Brown on staff.

“Blown away by his work ethic and professionalism!,” he tweeted.

Brown knew tailback Keith Marshall and fullback Quayvon Hicks through the recruiting process when he was on the strength staff, but Chubb and Sony Michel just finished their freshmen seasons.

“I told the guys when I first met with them that I probably know a lot more about them then they know about me,” Brown said.

Brown is ranked seventh on the Georgia career rushing list after racking up 2,646 yards from 2004-07.

Chubb would slide past him in his second season even if he doesn’t quite reach the 1,547 yards he posted last season.

Chubb would slide past him in his second season even if he doesn’t quite reach the 1,547 yards he posted last season.

“We’ve got some talented guys,” he said. “so it makes me proud to have had the opportunity to play here and be a part of that legacy even though those guys are a whole lot better than I ever was.”

Georgia didn’t get back to Athens until about 4 a.m. Sunday after its men’s basketball overtime victory at Alabama Saturday night

The team took a bus ride home after plane issues.

Even so, going on the road for Georgia has been a winning proposition more often than not this season.

The Bulldogs are 6-4 on opponent’s home courts entering Wednesday night’s game at Ole Miss.

That includes wins against top 80 RPI teams Texas A&M and Alabama and three others against opponents inside the top 120: Kansas State, Chattanooga and Vanderbilt.

“I think our experience certainly has helped us play away from home,” said Georgia coach Mark Fox, who starts two seniors in the front court and two juniors in the backcourt. “We have more upperclassmen playing then we’ve had in a couple of years and the advantage of having upperclassmen has shown when we’ve been on the road.”

Some aspects of winning on the road:

• The best teams in the SEC are showing that away from their home courts.

The top six teams in the league standings all have winning records on the road. That even includes Arkansas, which had a reputation under Mike Anderson of being kings of the home court but struggling on the road. The Razorbacks are 6-4 on the road this year.

“You’ve got to play with mental toughness, you’ve got to play with physical toughness as well,” Anderson said. “And you’ve got to make plays and I really feel like we have the players now to make those plays.”

• What has separated Fox’s best teams at Georgia? Winning away from home. The 2011 NCAA tournament team was 7-4 on the road. All the others had losing road records except for this year’s team, which is in position to also go to the NCAAs.

• Georgia has found wins where they have been hard to come by lately. Georgia won at Alabama for the first time since 2003 and at Vanderbilt for the first time since 2006.

• Ole Miss is 9-5 at home. Only three teams in the SEC have a worse home record: Mississippi State (8-7), Auburn (9-6) and Missouri (6-9).

• There isn’t much of a homecourt advantage in SEC play.

Visiting teams have won nearly 47 percent of the time (a 46-52 record) this season in league play.

• Georgia has found wins where they have been hard to come by lately. Georgia won at Alabama for the first time since 2003 and at Vanderbilt for the first time since 2006.

“I know a lot of times people think, you’re on the road, the home team has an automatic win,” said LSU coach Johnny Jones said. “The parity in our league is so close and so tough on any given night it doesn’t matter who you’re playing that you have to be at your best. Whether you’re at home or away, you’re certainly going to be challenged.”

Forward Nemanja Djurisic felt the need to offer an apology to his Georgia teammates for drawing a costly technical that would be more expected from a freshman than a senior.

That was hardly the only thing that led to a second straight home loss to a lower-tier SEC team.

The days in between Tuesday’s 64-58 loss to South Carolina and Saturday’s 8 p.m. game at Alabama hardly have been routine.

“It’s not been business as usual because we’re not playing well,” coach Mark Fox said.

Fox sent a strong message that the loss to the Gamecocks and a 69-68 defeat to Auburn three days earlier won’t cut it, but “that’s between me and our team,” he said.

Said Djurisic: “I think we are a team that needs to get better and we all know that. We hit a slump, a big one. And we’re just trying to get better and right.”

Asked for a picture for what it’s been like since the team returned after an off day Wednesday, Fox said bluntly: “You can’t get a picture for how pissed off I am. Excuse my language, but I didn’t like how we played. I didn’t like at all how we played last week. We’ve got to go back to work.”

Georgia (16-9, 7-6 SEC) hasn’t lost three straight in more than a year, but hasn’t won in Tuscaloosa since 2003, going 0-5 since including on their last visit in 2013.

Three of Georgia’s final five regular season games are on the road and getting wins is critical, guard Kenny Gaines said.

“If not, it’s not going to be a pretty end to our season,” Gaines said.

For now, Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com projects the Bulldogs as a No. 11 seed in the NCAA tournament. That’s down from No. 9 at the start of this week.

Georgia has lost four of its last six.

Slow starts have been a problem lately.

Georgia made one of its first 7 shots against Auburn and trailed 12-4 and was two of its first 10 against South Carolina and fell behind 34-13.

“It’s mental,” guard Charles Mann said. “We’ve got to get ready and come out early in the game.”

It also may be physical with injuries taking a toll.

Juwan Parker, a starter at small forward, is expected to miss his 10th straight game Saturday with an achilles’ injury.

Georgia could get a boost with the return of guard J.J. Frazier, who sat out Tuesday due to a concussion. He also sustained a fractured orbital bone.

He made the trip to Tuscaloosa.

“We’ll see,” Fox said about his availability.

His return would be welcome.

“We need to get whole,” Fox said. “The first thing we have to do is establish some consistency in a rotation in which some of that has been taken out of our hands with the injuries. With whoever is suiting up there’s a certain level of expectation and execution that we expect. We didn’t get that so we’ve been trying to get back to that.”

Fox told his team that when Frazier was out, they needed to show more hunger “because you’ve got something to overcome.”

Instead they made things harder on themselves. With Georgia already trailing 12-4, Djurisic got called for his second foul for contact while trying to get position for a pass. He threw the ball towards the official and was slapped with a technical, his third foul.

“A very quick moment that cost me a lot,” said Djurisic. “It was a mistake and a very immature mistake by me and something that coaching staff probably didn’t expect me to do. It happened and I apologized to my team and I have to move on and just get focused for the game.”

Alabama (16-10, 6-7), coming off a 79-68 win at Auburn, could tie Georgia in the SEC standings with a win.

“I don’t think we’ve been playing well, the players that we had and there’s no excuse for that,” Djurisic said. “We need to get back to playing the right way, playing hard and just playing better basketball from top to bottom.”

Georgia has damaged its NCAA tournament resume with back-to-back home losses to Auburn and South Carolina.

The body of work is what the men’s basketball selection committee will look at. From that perspective, the Bulldogs still are considered safely in the field of 68.

Jerry Palm, who projects the tournament field for CBSSports.com, was a guest on the “Bulldog Bytes” podcast that will be posted on Friday.

“Georgia’s still in relatively good shape,” Palm said. “The thing about being on the bubble is you don’t really control your own destiny. You’re at the mercy of what other teams are doing.”

Palm’s next bracket projection comes out Friday. Georgia is still a No. 9 seed by the one done at ESPN.com.

The Bulldogs, at 16-9 and 7-5 in the SEC, have dropped to No. 43 in the RPI.

Their worst losses are to No. 149 Auburn and No. 110 Georgia Tech.

With five games left in the regular season including Saturday at Alabama, here’s some of what Palm said about Georgia’s NCAA tournament chances, knowing as always upsets in conference tournaments elsewhere can change the landscape:

First things first

“If they just win the games they’re supposed to win, lose at Ole Miss, they lose to Kentucky, they don’t get upset somewhere in the conference tournament, maybe they’ll still make the tournament,” he said. “It really depends on what other teams do.”

Must-win games?

Feb. 28 home vs. Missouri and March 7 at Auburn.

“The way their profile stacks up, those are as much must-win as anything,” he said.

Especially since the South Carolina loss already is on the ledger.

Be road warriors

Georgia beat bubble team Texas A&M on the road and has home wins against Ole Miss and Seton Hall.

“They could really stand to have a higher quality win away from home,” Palm said. “Winning at Ole Miss (Wednesday) would probably be about the same if not a little better than winning at A&M. You can also pick up quality wins away from home at the conference tournament.”

Beating Kentucky?

“That’s the ultimate feather in the cap this year if anybody could find a way to beat Kentucky,” he said.” That would really help a lot, but you don’t want to put your hopes on having to beat Kentucky.”

And beating Kentucky and a face-plant against the remaining schedule and at the SEC tournament won’t put Georgia in the field by itself.

“That’s the kind of a game if you do unfortunately find yourself near the bottom of the bracket, that’s a win you’re going to have that nobody else is going to be able to reach,” Palm said.

What about the losses of key players?

“If your profile is not good enough to be selected, that’s not going to matter,” he said. “If your profile is good enough to be selected, there might be a little bit of seeding consideration, but I wouldn’t count on it. It wouldn’t be much even if there was. The committee cannot assume that Georgia would have won the games that they lost had their leading scorer played.”